Land Use Change Impact Assessment

Minimum dataset

Raster maps in ASCII format

  • Topography (DEM)
  • Soil classes
  • Land cover classes
  • Sampling points for output reports (time series)
  • Further maps are derived from these

Weather data in daily resolution

  • Rain fall
  • Air temperature
  • Soil (5cm depth) temperature
  • ET0 (reference evapotranspiration on a standardised grass pitch)
  • Solar radiation

Soil data

All data are required for each soil class specified in the soil map (s. above). For the two soil horizons represented in LUCIA

  • SOC
  • Total N
  • Available P
  • Texture
  • Bulk density
  • Horizon thickness are the main user inputs;
  • Soil physical parameters like Ksat are calculated from these. 

Plant data

For each land cover type, the required input data at stand level are grouped into categories:

  • General plant data, such as temperature sums required until flowering and maturity, water use efficiency, maximum leaf area index
  • Development-dependent allocation ratios: The shares of carbohydrates from photosynthesis, which go to roots, stems, leaves and fruit during different development stages of the plant. These data are derived from two user-defined cardinal points.
  • NPK concentrations for each plant part - i.e. root, stem, leaf, fruit - during all stages of physiological development, estimated from two cardinal points
  • there are some more; a complete list can be found in the manual.

We provide default datasets for a range of  tropical annual and tree crops. The plant parameters in LUCIA are basically the ones required for the WOFOST model, and data are available in several research papers as well as in the WOFOST database.

Biomass, LAI and other parameters for existing perennial vegetation (e.g. old growth forest, natural succession or plantations present at the beginning of the simulation) are estimated from measurements or empirical equations:

  • Direct input (in case of existing destructive measurements)
  • allometric equations (for uniform even-aged stands like plantations)
  • a plateau function based on stand age
  • a Gompertz function that includes a coefficient for plant death

These functions can be selected alternatively for each land cover type.

Management

  • Planting dates (up to three per year),
  • Rates and NPK concentrations of fertiliser and manure and their application dates (optional)
  • Tillage (optional) and
  • Burning (dates and ratio of firewood collection, date and efficacy of burning) (optional)